Adrian Michaels is Group Foreign Editor at the Telegraph Media Group. You can write to adrian.michaels@telegraph.co.uk and follow @adrianmichaels on Twitter.

Truffles from Pakistan, anyone?

The Pèrigord truffle, which can sell for 1,000 euro per kilo (Photo: Getty)

Give a man mushrooms and he'll eat for a day, but teach him how to find truffles and he'll eat for life. Or something like that. Extraordinary news reaches me from the international aid effort related to the Pakistan floods: Pakistan is to be allowed to import mushrooms and truffles into the European Union without incurring tariffs. The slight problem is that the Pakistan mushroom and truffle industry is in what one might call its infancy.

This wonderful big-hearted gesture from the EU probably won't resettle that many of the millions of displaced Pakistanis, or help to rebuild and right some of the umpteen billions of dollars worth of damage. But, in a slightly more worthwhile manner, the mushrooms are one of 75 categories of product that the EU wants to allow in without trade barriers. There has been a French rearguard action against bed linen – one of Pakistan's big money earners – but as part of the country's first ever trade deal with the developed world it will be exporting T-shirts, socks, underwear, caps, scarfs and many other products, as well as, er, industrial ethanol.

In total, Pakistan sees a 200 million euro-a-year benefit from such a deal. Again, this is small fry compared with the flood damage, and is programmed to last just three years, but it should have lasting knock-on effects in the economy, and help to foster much goodwill. Britain knows the immense strategic value of such partnerships, which is why the trade deal is being heavily championed by David Cameron and William Hague.

The agreement is up in front of the European Parliament in the next few days, and also has to be approved by the World Trade Organisation in Geneva. It will probably get through in December, which we should all view as progress. And if you are quaffing a great bottle of barolo in the hills of Piedmont while partaking of this season's truffles, as you should be, and you happen upon a team of inquisitive Pakistanis with notebooks, you'll know why.